Summary

"Murder, teenage bullying, sleazy adults, and good police work add up to another fine entry by Jance." --The Oklahoman

Betrayal of Trust is the twentieth mystery by New York Times bestseller J.A. Jance to feature Seattle p.i. J. P. Beaumont--and it is another surefire winner from the author the Chattanooga Times calls, "One of the best--if not the best." When Beau discovers a snuff film recorded on a smart phone--a horrific crime that has a devastating effect on two troubled teens--his investigation unleashes a firestorm that blazes all the way up through the halls of Washington state government. Betrayal of Trust is certain to win this phenomenal crime fiction master ("In the elite company of Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell"--Flint Journal) a wealth of new fans while enthralling the army of devoted readers already addicted to the potent Jance magic.

Author Notes

Judith Ann (J. A.) Jance was born in Watertown, South Dakota on October 27, 1944. She received a degree in English and secondary education in 1966 and a M. Ed. in library science in 1970 from the University of Arizona. Before becoming an author, she taught high school English, worked as a school librarian on a Native American reservation, and sold insurance.

She is the author of many popular mystery series including the J. P. Beaumont Mystery series, Joanna Brady Mystery series, and the Ali Reynolds series. She won the American Mystery Award for Without Due Process in 1992 and for Failure to Appear in 1993. Both of these titles are books in the J. P. Beaumont Mystery series. In 2014, her fiction book, A Last Goodbye, made the New York Times bestseller list.

Random Acts, a title in A Joanna Brady and Ali Reynolds Novella Series, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2016.

Publisher's Weekly Review

In Jance's solid if a tad sentimental 20th J.P. Beamont novel (after Fire and Ice), the creaky-kneed Seattle detective and his third wife, Mel, both working for the Washington attorney general's unfortunately acronymed Special Homicide Investigation Team, have to probe a potentially explosive scandal: shortly after the governor's stepgrandson's cellphone was found to contain a snuff film, the troubled teen hanged himself in the governor's mansion. As Beau and Mel carry on their finely tuned good cop-bad cop routines and employ the conveniently accessible talents of techie associates, Beau counterpoints his dogged pursuit of "arrogant jerks," whose well-heeled parents extricate them from all scrapes, with his gradual bittersweet discovery of the father who died before his birth. Jance's denunciation of adolescent bullying and adult hypocrisy rings true, a testimony to the fundamental decency of cops like Beau and Mel who walk the mean streets the rest of their society would rather not explore except in fiction. 8-city author tour. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

It's been several years since Jance gave Seattle PI J. P. Beaumont center stage (Justice Denied, 2007), although he was paired with another of her series protagonists, Joanna Brady, in Fire and Ice (2009). Beau (along with wife Mel, his partner on Washington's Special Homicide Investigation Team) is still the go-to guy whenever the attorney general has a politically sensitive case. When Governor Marsha Longmire, a high-school classmate of Beau's, finds a snuff film on her teenage stepgrandson's cell phone, Beau and Mel are asked to investigate; the case becomes more urgent when the boy commits suicide in his bedroom in the governor's mansion. As Beau recalls bein. uncoo. to Longmire'. coo. in high school, he and Mel find people of privilege acting as if they're above the law. Dogged police work, from skilled hacking to sifting through garbage, leads to a satisfying solution in Beau's nineteenth outing. There's not a lot of suspense here, but the detecting is solid, and fans will enjoy reconnecting with Beau, now an aging warhorse with bad knees.--Leber, Michel. Copyright 2010 Booklist

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